Assisting EU countries in skills matching

Cedefop’s European skills and jobs survey (ESJS) has revealed that about 45% of EU adult workers believe that their skills can either be better developed or utilised at work. European policy that mitigates skill mismatch can thus be conducive to raising productivity and improving worker well-being.

But better matching a country’s skill supply to the needs of its economy is a dynamic process that requires policies to increase education and training responsiveness to labour market needs. Mitigating skill mismatch in an era of fast-paced digitalisation and automation requires a well-developed skills anticipation infrastructure in countries and an integrative approach to skills governance.

Addressing skill mismatch in countries cannot only rely on more and better tools of skill needs identification in labour markets; it requires an integrative approach to skills governance among key stakeholders, which can foster and sustain a virtuous feedback loop between labour market and education and training actors. Skills governance refers to the process of putting in place appropriate institutional structures (intermediary, formal or informal, skills bodies), operational processes (regulation, management, financial and non-financial incentives) and dissemination channels (online or offline platforms) that may facilitate stakeholder interaction and policy reaction based on reliable labour market information signals.

Cedefop’s skills governance framework

In 2017 Cedefop began to provide technical advice to countries asking for its support to improve their ‘governance of skills anticipation and matching’. In doing so, Cedefop works to identify country-specific challenges, bottlenecks and policy solutions for achieving effective skills governance.

In 2017-2019 Cedefop will work closely together with national authorities in Greece, Bulgaria, Slovakia and Estonia. Successful country-support was already provided in 2016 to Malta and Iceland.

The country support that Cedefop provides aims at improving methodological instruments that collect labour market and skills intelligence and seeks to facilitate effective dissemination and use of results in different policy spheres (e.g. education and training, employment, active labour market policies etc.), in collaboration with key national stakeholders.

To effectively carry out the country reviews, Cedefop has developed a comprehensive skills governance analytical framework that identifies key elements and ingredients of well-functioning systems of skill needs anticipation in EU countries. On the basis of this generic framework, Cedefop, in close consultation with National Steering Committees comprised of key Ministries and stakeholders in each country, refine and customise the framework so as to address national-specific priorities and challenges. Cedefop subsequently deploys additional methodological tools (stakeholder interviews, focus groups, Delphi methods) to collect in-depth information and facilitate policy consensus among national stakeholders.

Country-based research and tools on skills anticipation and skill mismatch

Methods for skills anticipation and matching

Cedefop’s long-standing research on methodologies of skills anticipation and tools to obtain skills intelligence has informed EU policymakers and underpins the European Commission’s New Skills Agenda for Europe.

Developing an innovative risk-based approach to identify a list of Mismatch Priority Occupations, which combines comparable quantitative indicators of occupational skill mismatches in EU Member States with qualitative judgment by country experts.

New data on skills and skill mismatch: Cedefop’s European skills and jobs survey

Cedefop carried out in 2014 the European skills and jobs (ESJ) survey, the first European survey on skill mismatch. The survey offers unique insights into the drivers of skill development and mismatch in relation to the changing skill needs of the jobs of European workers.

Assessing country skill systems: Cedefop’s European Skills Index

The European Skills Index (ESI) enables the identification of success and weakness areas in EU countries’ ability to develop and effectively utilise the skills of their populations. ESI is a composite index designed for assessing three core dimensions of a country’s skills infrastructure and its relevance to the labour market: